The reason to live

We often ask ourselves what truly matters. In the end our work is not what matters, nor is our health, and eventually we realise that there are things without a heartbeat for which someone is willing to give everything they have.

Our family, our children, our loved ones, those weaker than ourselves, these are the ones who come to mind first. But why then do we grieve when someone leaves us if they did what they loved and lived fully? We feel as though something has been taken from us. If the purpose of life is to live and to nurture life by protecting it, where did we get everything we are made of, and why have we shaped ourselves in such a way that we cannot find joy in what we already have?

Loss does not mean failure, not for those who have gone, nor for those who remain. Each of us makes choices every day whose outcomes we cannot control, yet according to many traditions, if this is how things are then this is exactly how they were meant to be. It is said that not a single leaf falls in the wrong place, but because control is the safest refuge for the uncertain, we cannot comprehend the greater design of the universe in whose wheels we are simultaneously small and deeply significant. In the middle of chaos even the smallest moment of balance feels like the peace we have been longing for.

The ability to accept things is one of the greatest forms of that control. Letting go alongside it becomes a superpower that many fear. Our choices take us to places where we grow, change and ultimately leave our mark on this world, which is why each of us can ask ourselves why we do what we do.

Our choices become habits that eventually seal our story, whether that happens in a private jet or on a local bus, the quality of the journey does not depend on the vehicle but on who travels with you and what you carry inside. We cannot store the vanities we covet throughout our entire lives, and material legacy does not tell the story of who we truly were. What we leave behind in hearts is the only legacy that cannot be wasted.

The keys to peace are right now in your pocket. Perhaps the greatest question of all is not how you want to be remembered but how you want to live today, fully, presently, meaningfully. That might just determine everything that came before it. Those I have had the privilege of witnessing find that peace have found it here, in this very moment not in some future departure but in the fullness of being present right now.

Enjoy your day, for it is a gift whose true value reveals itself only when we learn to live it completely.